Team Hulkamania Smash up the Green Belter!

Young Gary Clarke and myself SMASHED UP the legendary Green Belter Course in Hambeldon Estate on Saturday, we teamed up in silly rig as the famous wrestler Hulk Hogan. The Adventure course/competition consisted of a multi-sport mix of biking, running, kayak and a "Green Machine" obstacle course to finish on.

The opposition didn’t show too much fear in their eyes as they witness team Hulkamania pull up on their ill equipped bikes, the fellow competitors prepared well with their specialized tri boxes for, well equipped nutrition and bikes that cost more than my first car! Team Hulkamania attempted not to be phased by the big guns on show and muscled in on the front line for the start. We hit the first run hard and went into T1 in the top 10, entering the 20km bike section, we struggled and fell into the top 30, the bike was taxing, sheer sweat and determination ensured that we didn’t slip too far from the front. It’s not very often that Hulk Hogan has rubbery legs when competing but on this occasion we both had to run our rubbery legs for the first 2km of the second run (10km), by the time we completed this stage we edged our way back into the top 20, leaving too much to do top get in the top 10, but we were in the top 5 in the team competitors we gained strength from hearing this and picked up our pace taking over 1 team in T3, striding out towards the Thames for the kayak, hulkamania put some hustle behind their muscle to power their way into 3^rd position coming out of the Thames, with the second team in sight, we managed to overcome cramp to sprint ahead of the team before entering the ‘Green Machine’ obstacle course, team Hulkamania came 2^nd overall in the paired event and 14^th overall.

PB’s all-round in Marlow 5

Team BCA Smashed out Marlow 5 in first place as a company, after winning a £10 Waitrose voucher can we call ourselves professional athletes?

P.Hindley: 30:04 (PB)

J.Childs: 31:16 (PB)

A.Ballard: 31:26 (PB)

Birthday Swim in the River Thames.

To celebrate Stewarts 33^rd birthday the three of use decided to go for an open water swim, slipping into the Thames and trying our best to put the pool swimming into practice. As expected Stewart was strong and Alex once settled into the open water looked comfortable and applied his pool skills to good effective use, whereas I was lucky to survive, a serious wake up call and an extremely poor swim from me however I did manage to apply the front crawl technique 90% of the way whereas in comparison to my swim the same time last year I could only manage breaststroke. I know swimming for me is going to be a challenging discipline, one that needs serious work on!

Great Welsh Marathon

As the spring sun broke through the early morning Llanelli mist on Sunday 10^th April, six athletes lined up for the 9am start of the Llanelli Great Welsh Marathon.

The two lap, technically demanding, undulating course, was superbly organised, steered us through the length of the beautiful traffic-free coastal path / cycle-way, stretching from Machynys Golf Course in the east through to Burry Port Harbour in the west

As the temperatures raised to 21 degrees C the scenery was only of secondary importance to us all as our priority was to remain hydrated during the race. With this being the first marathon for Alex, Sarah, Si and I we were excited and somewhat anxious about the distance. Alex and both lined up on the start line with the thought of the iron man in the back of our minds, Simon lined up for his first competitive race in months as he he’s been laid off due to injuries, Jon striving for a PB, and 8 weeks ago Sarah and her Father Tony set themselves a challenge to complete a marathon before Tony turned 60 years of age.

Not knowing how to approach this race I settled in to my stride and sustained a comfortable pace, Alex, Jon and Si ran together for the early stage of the race and Sarah ran alongside Tony. On completion of our first marathon Alex and I were happy with our times, Jon smashed his PB, Si successfully ran a respectable marathon post injury, Sarah and her father was successful in what they set out to achieve. Well done to all!!

Times:

P.Hindley: 2:58:06 (PB)

J.Childs: 3:21:23 (PB)

A.Ballard: 3:23:40 (PB)

S. Neal: 4:05:34 (PB)

S. Lipscombe: 5:07;05 (PB)

T.Lipscombe: 5:59:51